Gaby Wijers - Smithsonian Institution

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Smithsonian Institution Time-Based and Digital Art Working Group: Interview Project Do you have a template for conducting artist’s interviews? Yes we do. We digitized 1500 titles over the last two years. So, it is hardly possible to also do all of the interviews and get all of the information about the authenticity and how to deal with a work in the future. Have you been able to group these works into classifications- are you able to create case studies for one and then move forward for the rest of the group? If so, can you speak about the differences between these classifications in terms of what level does a work fit into a class? Is it by format, or others? Is it too hard to define? I think it’s too hard. Basically we can group works- like all black and white registrations could be a group. Works by artists that use the maximum of the possibilities of coloring or using noise like special video artifacts can be grouped. I would like to ask about the Netherland’s national approach to preserving media artworks. Is this model- or approach- influencing how people outside the Netherlands are approaching similar issues? Also, do you know of any other countries that are using this collective national approach to this problem? No, I’m not aware of any exactly similar approach. I guess in a way I’m not sure if the Dutch are in general that collaborative on a national level. Within the preservation of contemporary art, there is big group of the contemporary art museums that work together on research and that makes sense. The field is still sort of unsecure and in need of certain guidance and a platform for exchange. Together with the Foundation of the Conservation of Contemporary Art, we tried to develop standards, but also an acquisition contract for video or born-digital art along with rules on how to present works online, and of course preservation. Since we have done this for quite a while already, the museums in the Netherlands in a way outsource their storage and preservation of the video arts works to us. Can you speak a little bit about the storage set-up that you’ve managed to build in terms of the technical infrastructure? Is the set-up different because you are storing artworks? We do more quality checks. We store copies in house but also outside. We run checksums and other quality checks at least once a year. The LTO tapes are 1 to 1 copies. The presentation files are not restored but nevertheless changed. For instance, we masked them now and we didn’t do that in the past. Since now hardly anything is presented on old TV monitors but a lot of it is presented on other screens. A lot of information is seen on projections where it should not be seen so we mask it. Just one example. Has your thinking had to change from your foundational library training as you’ve moved into this field of time-based media art? What in your training have you found to be most helpful and useful? From the start, I also worked describing theater performances. Next to describing objects I also worked for museums. So in describing objects or a document, we always described life elements. I was quite used to that. I think that is often lacking in basic education. Media art 4
Smithsonian Institution Time-Based and Digital Art Working Group: Interview Project is more process based and not only object based. You can describe the certain video of course and you should but you also have to describe the artwork. The artwork is laid down on a certain video tape. Having a different videotape with the same work is still considered the same work, so you have to have this entity on top of the material. If we have an artwork and it has fifteen different tapes or files, then it is still only one artwork related to all of these different files. In all kinds of library rules or protocols there are some ways to deal with that. I think that thinking about these parameters and structuring information was a benefit. You always need to know what information you need and then you also need to find a way to group it. I guess it is something very useful in this field. On the other hand, I also think I don’t have the biggest technical background; yet I have some. For a librarian it is similar. If you have this technical background or this information structure background it is also very helpful for being an intermediate between the conservation and the registrar and the artist or the technicians. Someone can tell about changing a certain format but you need to be able to understand what it means and what questions to ask. And I think with such a background, you are able to, maybe. I was often puzzled by how to work on this training. Would it be helpful to educate technical people with ethical skills on art preservation? I always thought that would be very helpful. On the other hand, the contemporary art restorers, from that side, to be trained with far more technical skills. We collaborate with the University of Amsterdam. The University of Amsterdam has a restoration section. At the University of Amsterdam there is also a master for the presentation of the preservation of the moving image. For both of the groups combined we do a one month workshop each year. I am also a guest lecturer. They have three or four blocks of lessons for three hours about media art preservation. Then we focus a little bit more on the video art preservation. What does that month look like? What topics do you tackle? Do you work hands-on with artworks? Yes. The workshop is in three sections. The first section discusses art conservation models and theory. For instance, the artist interview methodology or the decision making model or the decision making tree, like what the DOCAM uses. So these kinds of tools and explanations. In another section, people from the field come and talk about their practices or we go somewhere like the Museum. We discuss certain installations, and then the groups of students, about 12 to 16 people, work together under the guidance of a restorer and with feedback from me and my team, documenting and reinstallation of media art installations. They also have an end presentation. At this end presentation they also get feedback from invited professionals working in the field. Are the participant’s people who are already practitioners in the field that need to add to their technical skills and experience in this areas, or are they new practitioners? They are the students from Conservation and Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Art combined with the students from the master of Presentation and Preservation of the Moving Images. They have some background but they don’t have much work experience. Where the people from restoration are really used to working with objects but seldom 5
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Gaby Wijers - Smithsonian Institution

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